By Kodie Cherrille (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: January 28, 2015
The best kinds of comebacks are those that don’t feel like comebacks. They’re more like opportunities for musicians to prove they have what made them special in the first place. When a band like Sleater-Kinney returns to the musical fray, it is easy to say, “Of course they’ll be great,” since so much of what made them wonderful (talent) was there from the start. But there’s always doubt that the years between outputs eroded the greatness in an act’s DNA.
No Cities to Love is the first Sleater-Kinney album in 10 years. Apart from a new depth in Carrie Brownstein’s voice that implies passing time (or chain-smoking), it’s hard to know that if you just dove into the album. Janet Weiss’s huge percussive presence; political commentary with a side of tongue-in-cheek references to rock’n’roll lore; the perfect synthesis of singers / guitarists Tucker and Carrie Brownstein, lyrically, vocally, and instrumentally — all the staples are there in spades. This makes No Cities the best kind of comeback: they’re back, and they’re still awesome.
With their previous album, 2005’s classic-rock-meets-punk masterpiece The Woods, Sleater-Kinney proved to have an uncanny ability to capture in their orbit what might seem incompatible to their musical and political stance. This trend continues, 10 years later. No Cities is Sleater-Kinney at their most compartmentalized and accessible: it’s their “pop” album that straddles the political discontent of One Beat with the show(wo)manship of The Woods; a chart-topper in a world where Gang of Four’s dancefloor-Marxism classic Entertainment! reigns supreme.
Though there’s no direct explication of heartbreaking intimacy or desperation like older jams “One More Hour” or “Jumpers,” the band’s aggression remains intact in more streamlined forms, though still with those bouncy, angular guitar lines that sound like they’re doing gymnastics with a twig for a balance beam (“Price Tag,” “No Cities to Love”). And as the album unfolds, some sludge starts pouring in: “No Anthems” is a delicious metal-inflected romp with an array of sonic palettes in the guitar tone , and “Fade” closes the fast-paced album with a slow, heavy dirge.
Given how No Cities to Love captures the essence of Sleater-Kinney with brevity, the album is poised to be the gateway album, offering a good introduction to a band that was, and continues to be, a thrill to listen to. Of course Sleater-Kinney’s new album was going to be great. It’s in their DNA.
